PPC116 | Technical

Martin Cobbald, Managing Director at Dealey Environmental and a member of BPCA’s Board of Directors, was joined by two experts from CRRU UK for an in-depth look at the organisation and its role in protecting professional-use rodenticides.

Retiring Chair, Dr Alan Buckle, stepped down from the helm after 20 years this spring, handing over to long-standing CRRU UK supporter Nigel Cheeseright.

The trio delve into the origins of CRRU UK and how it came to be the regulatory body for rodenticide use, as well as taking a look at the make-up of the organisation’s membership, government monitoring needs and new training requirements due to be introduced in 2026.

Watch part 1

Watch part 2

Martin Cobbald MC, Nigel Cheeseright NC, and Dr Alan Buckle AB.

MC Congratulations Alan on your 20 years at CRRU. What are your proudest achievements?

AB It’s hard to say any one particular thing. CRRU had been going for a few months when I was asked to be Chair. 

What I remember most was probably the three years of work that it took to pull the stewardship scheme together. We were talking with the three sectors that wanted to use the rodenticides – pest control, gamekeeping, and farming – and at the same time, the HSE said it didn’t want to authorise these products for use outdoors, which means you couldn’t use them for rat control.

The HSE then authorised the products for the ‘in and around buildings’ use that we’re all familiar with.

MC At what point did it become clear that barn owl livers should become the environmental indicator for success?

AB That was a government decision and a lot of thought went into it on their side as to how they were going to monitor us. 

They chose the barn owl only because we had so much historical data on exposure in barn owls. They wanted a statistically significant dataset. They did look at other species – foxes, red kites and sparrowhawks – but none of them had enough historical data for before and after comparisons.

They chose the barn owl only because we had so much historical data on exposure in barn owls.

MC This speaks to the make-up of CRRU being the manufacturers and distributors of these products so you have the industry knowledge to put into that discussion – is that correct?

AB CRRU member companies are not allowed to share any information about volumes, values and how much is used so we’re completely blind to that because there’s this massive issue of competition law. It’s an absolutely forbidden thing to talk about volumes.

Every now and again, you read something that gives you a feel for that, but no, we don’t have that information.

One of the stewardship subgroups set up by the government has recognised that lack of information and has set up to look into it and see if that information can be provided by CRRU companies directly to the government, and the government can then hold that information and understand what’s going on in barn owls better.

MC That seems like a tremendous improvement if that goes through. On the one hand you’ve got to be proactive in keeping these actives safe, but at the same time, you’ve got goalposts being shifted according to the whims of regulators and political headwinds.

MC So, over to you Nigel, why did you put your hat in the ring for this?

NC I was involved in CRRU pre- and post-stewardship, but I have a background in the chemical industry, with 25 years in the chemical industry giving me a good understanding of supply chains and stewarding hazardous substances around the world. 

I’ve also had about 11 years of pest control experience working with Rentokil in its technical service area, looking after products and registration. I retired in 2021 from full time work and I’ve just been doing things that interest me – and this seemed like a project that would fit my skill set and be incredibly challenging.

MC I’m constantly fascinated by the international flavour of what you chaps do. It would be interesting to go into what CRRU actually is, seeing as it existed before the stewardship scheme came about.

AB CRRU is composed of manufacturers that hold regulatory authorisation to sell rodenticides in the UK. Principally, it’s to represent those companies, but it also has to try to represent the three professional user groups, which are the professional pest control industry, farming and gamekeeping.

We also have a CRRU taskforce that has 35 stakeholder organisations sitting within it. Those groups meet at least once a year, and everything that CRRU does is put to those meetings, and all the stakeholders, including BPCA, are invited to attend and take part in the organisation and running of the stewardship scheme.

There are other stakeholders, such as RSPB and other environmental groups, so it tries to balance all of these things.

CRRU is composed of manufacturers that hold regulatory authorisation to sell rodenticides in the UK

MC How do you think CRRU’s objectives will change in the future?

NC CRRU’s objectives are largely set by the HSE and government oversight group, and their requirements of us are to fulfil various things with regards to stewardship, so we will be trying to achieve all of those elements and stay on top of point-of-sale checks and so on.

There are two fairly big changes that have already been announced, that I’ll be working on: the removal of open area use, and the new training requirements coming in during 2026.

There’s quite a lot of work behind the scenes that is going to have to take place to make sure those changes are fully implemented.

MC One of the changes is that professional rodenticide users will have to be on an approved rodent-specific CPD scheme every year.

AB Up until this recent change, CRRU has never stipulated you had to be part of a CPD scheme to be professionally competent. You either had to be a member of a CRRU-approved farm assurance scheme or have done a CRRU course and that was all.

It doesn’t really sound sensible that doing one course once in your life means you are professionally competent forever.

They then said you can either re-do your course every five years or join a CRRU-approved CPD scheme.

MC Not a lot is ever said about any comebacks for people who may be misusing rodenticides.

AB I’ve been working on WIS (Wildlife Investigation Scheme – part of HSE) data for many years. Most people think it starts with a dead bird, but WIS is equally interested in incidents of malpractice.

They’d much rather have a photograph or report of malpractice and deal with it before something dies than wait for something to drop out of the sky. 

Anyone who sees these malpractice incidents and has some evidence can contact freephone 0800 321 600 or go to the website in which to put up these records. CRRU absolutely endorses the need for investigation and prosecution of misuse.

More from the CRRU chairs

For more from Dr Alan Buckle and Nigel Cheeseright, in conversation with Martin Cobbald, check out a recording of the interview, which is available at
youtube.com/bpcavideo